Company fined after neglecting to use scaffolding

A London-based roofing company has been fined £50,000 and its Director given a community service order, having been found guilty of failing to effectively plan suitable safety measures, causing the death of a worker.

The incident occurred in December 2015, and saw an employee at the roofing company fall from height as he was working on the roof of a two-storey house in Wimbledon. The worker was found unresponsive on the ground shortly after beginning work on the house and sadly passed away later on that day.

Following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Metropolitan Police, the roofing company was found to have failed to implement suitable measures to ensure safe work at height. More specifically, scaffolding should have been erected along two sides of the building, which would have ultimately provided adequate edge protection to leading edges on the roof, but critically, no such provision was made.

At a hearing in February of this year, the roofing company in question pleaded guilty to breaching the Regulation 4 (Organisation and Planning) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and was fined £50,000, with the sole Director also pleading guilty to breaching the Heath and Safety at Work Act. He was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £5,500.

This is another clear example of the importance of effective planning from the outset of any project.

Contact the team at Simian today to find out more about our training and consultancy and services, which extend to providing advice on the most effective means of carrying out safe work at height.